Was building Boulder’s smart grid a smart idea?
In March 2008, it all sounded great. Xcel Energy announced that Boulder would be home to the very first smart grid in the country, and people loved it. City council members thought the idea was stupendous; environmentalists said it would help the average person conserve electricity — or at least spread out their electricity use so that peak loads could be diminished (and, therefore, so could peak-load plants that are most often run off of coal and natural gas).
The costs of Xcel Energy's SmartGridCity project in Boulder are far higher than originally projected.
But two years later, the smart grid doesn’t look as shiny as it once did. For one thing, costs have skyrocketed. At first, Xcel thought that it would cost the company about $15.3 million to actually build the grid, not including the cost of running and maintaining it. By May 2009, Xcel realized it was going to be far more, perhaps $27.9 million. Now, Xcel is guessing that total capital expenditures — we’re talking digging ditches for fiber cable and installing smart meters in people’s homes — will cost $42.1 million. Read more
Cool old-timey beer production video reminds us how far we’ve come
If I had the time, I’d make a remix of this wonderful video with some footage of solar arrays and other neat energy innovations in brewing on the front end — and leave the rest intact until the very final “thanks to coal” bit.
We’ve definitely come a long way from loads purely coal fueled breweries to trends toward wind and solar powered sustainable, green breweries. Brooklyn Brewery was early in the trend in 2003 when they converted to 100% wind powered energy.
Of course as we’ve posted here before, New Belgium Brewery’s 870-panel solar array is nothing to sneeze at, with Odell Brewing Company not far behind getting 39 percent of energy needs covered by their solar array.
And there are other cool energy-saving marvels, too — different varieties of heat recapturing are used at New Belgium, famously at Sierra Nevada in California, and Canada’s Steam Whistle Brewing might have one of the more unique green strategies–using a deep lake water cooling refrigeration system.
Not only are sustainable breweries good for the environment, but they also help brewers cuts costs, which is probably a big part of why greener brewing is on the rise.
–Dave Burdick and Lindsay Gulisano
“Prairie Dog Day” didn’t exactly take off…
A prairie dog | Photo by David Jennings
…but prairie dogs did get a little NYT attention this week. As many regions tried to claim Groundhog Day in the name of some other small animals (see also: Armadillo Day in Texas, not to be confused with Dillo Day in Illinois), some environmentalists took the opportunity to ask for prairie dog awareness.
[The black-tailed prairie dog's] population has plummeted from roughly one billion in the 1990s to 24 million today because of poisonings, shootings and loss of habitat.
Nonetheless, federal officials denied the prairie dog protection under the Endangered Species Act in December, saying the population was rebounding.
via Why Not Prairie Dog Day, Activists Ask – Dot Earth Blog – NYTimes.com.
New fame won’t lure ‘The Cove’ director out of Boulder
Louie Psihoyos
Just because “The Cove,” which got an Academy Award nomination Tuesday for best documentary film, is now the talk of Hollywood (and New York, and Park City, Utah, and everywhere else in between) doesn’t mean that the film’s director, Louie Psihoyos, plans to take his new-found fame and leave provincial Boulder (relatively speaking, of course) behind.
No, Psihoyos loves it here. (And what better place for the executive director of the Oceanic Preservation Society to live?)
“We made this film in my backyard,” Psihoyos told the Daily Camera. “And now, the last couple weeks, we’ve been rubbing shoulders with George Clooney and Meryl Streep … the Hollywood glitterati. Now we’re part of the discussion.”
And he plans to reap that attention from the film to sow more bad-ass ocean movies that tackle environmental travesties. Money for those films, one of which he started on last week, has seemed a little less hard to come by, he said. And Psihoyos doesn’t even have to do the pitching anymore if he doesn’t want to. He’s already been approached by Animal Planet to film a show for them.
CAN YOU FIND THE PEOPLE? The crew of the documentary, Left to Right; Director Louie Psihoyos, Production Manager Joe Chisholm, Associate Producer Charles Hambleton.
With all the new work, Psihoyos said he may have to start a production company to handle the demand. But if he does, you can count on it being in Boulder, which, he says, is essential for giving movies that authentic feel. (Even ocean movies, because…. ummmm… Boulder is halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic so neither could accuse Psihoyos of being biased.)
“Hollywood is craving authentic, creative content from the hinterlands,” he told the Daily Camera. “That’s why the film was resonating with people. And that’s why Sarah Siegel-Magness’ film is resonating.
“It doesn’t matter if you have a New York or an L.A. zip code, you can make films anywhere –especially in Colorado.”
Read more about how the Oscar nomination is impacting Psihoyos at DailyCamera.com.
CU recycling, now twice as nice
A couple of CU seniors get serious about smashing down cardboard boxes at a recycling dumpster on campus | Daily Camera
The University of Colorado is making changes to its recycling program that will make participation twice as easy. (Actually, 2.5 times as easy, if you’re a math person.)
Now, recycling locations around CU still have five bins — which to a lot of us Boulderites seems, well, pretty old school. (Read more about they city’s single-stream recycling on BigGreenBoulder.) The plan, according to an article in the Daily Camera, is to implement “dual-stream” recycling, which would cut the number of bins to two: one for paper and one for pretty much everything else.
Read more about it at DailyCamera.com.
If we were two trees, I would totally tree-date you
Groupon uses “collective buying power” to score deals — basically, they set up a discount with a company and say, “Hey, if we promise you 20 people will take advantage of this discount, what’ll you give us?”
Hey, these trees make a heart. ISN'T THAT CUTE?! SAY IT IS. | flickr user saragoldsmith
This week is probably the least practical Groupon I’ve ever seen, but it’s sweet, in time for Valentine’s Day and it involves planting trees in the name of love. They’ll plant two, side-by-side, in honor of you and your special friend.
Plant Trees 4 Life plants Colorado Blue Spruce trees, the state tree, which lives up to 600 years before metamorphosing into a human baby. Your saplings, which can honor a loved one, commemorate a special event, or embody your affection for conical vegetation, will fill out the forest’s embarrassing bald spots, pump out oxygen, anchor the soil, slow down water run-off, and help maintain a lush ecosystem. While you won’t be able to specify your trees’ location, you can virtually visit planting sites on Plant 4 Life’s website. Currently, the organization is planting in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, with the first 500 planted by the Independence Pass Foundation.
(Oh, also, the Groupon is only good for about a day. In this case, there are under 16 hours left.)
And, of course, there are two sites that regularly make use of collective buying power for environmental change: CarrotMob and 1BOG. More on them later!
Love watching the Super Bowl? Love snacking? Consider yourself a greenie, veg-head, sustainability devotee? We have what you need.
Super Bowl XLIV | From Flickr user RMTip21
This Sunday, millions of people will sit down to watch the Colts and the Saints battle it out at Super Bowl XLIV. However, all the Boulderites out there are probably looking for a way to make their Super bowl parties a little lighter and a little greener.
From watching the game on a more environmentally friendly TV, to cooking with sustainable ingredients, to eating vegetarian, greening your Super bowl can be simple.
Here are a some guilt-free, game-appropriate recipes that will please any football enthusiast, whether they care about sustainability or not. Read more
Sustainable Super Bowl recipe: Jambalaya
Want to whip up a Super Bowl meal in the spirit of New Orleans? Try out this recipe from Boulder’s Jax Fish House for Jambalaya, which uses sustainable fish and wild-caught U.S. shrimp. Read more
Vegetarian Super Bowl recipe: Mexican chili
As part of Big Green Boulder’s Holistic Super Bowl Package, try a tasty vegetarian chili that knocks out the meat but keeps all of its hearty flavor with a secret ingredient — chocolate! Read more
Sustainable Super Bowl tip: Greening your TV for the big game
Watch the game on a smaller, LCD flat-screen if you wanna be green | from flickr user Rick
Thinking of getting a new tube to enhance your Super Bowl-watching pleasure?
If you do, remember that big isn’t always better, at least in terms of finding a green TV. Try to stay small — about 25 inches — and go with an LCD instead of a plasma. Energy Star rated products are good, too, but buying a 72-inch Energy Star TV still isn’t exactly what you could call environmentally friendly.
So it’s safe to say that generally the smaller the TV the less energy it will use.
Read more about green TVs or check out more sustainable Super Bowl tips.
